Personal Branding Agencies FAQ.Straight answers about the directory.

The world's first dedicated personal branding directory. Personal Branding Agencies lists personal branding agencies, consultancies, and independent consultants on identical terms, and every listing is vetted by Mashman Consulting Group against seven public criteria and a signed Code of Ethics. A one-person practice is as eligible as a twenty-person agency.

It is the directory's promise. Every listing passes the same free vetting review, and nothing that decides whether a practice is listed, how it is rated, or where it ranks can be paid for. Paid plans buy placement and presentation only, and paid placement is always labeled.

No. Vetting confirms a practice's identity, its stated credentials, and its commitment to the Code of Ethics at the time of review; it is not a judgment that the practice will do good work for you. Neither PBA nor any listed practice guarantees results through the directory, as the disclaimers set out.

No. Personal Branding Agencies and Mashman Consulting Group do not broker engagements and are not a party to any agreement between you and a practice, so a dispute about the work is between you and that practice. A breach of the Code of Ethics can still be reported to us separately.

Search the directory by name, specialty, or city, and filter by who a practice serves, what it specializes in, provider type, engagement, and price tier. You can also browse by specialty or city, answer six questions in Find Your Match, and save practices to a shortlist to compare two side by side.

Start with the Buyer's Guide. It turns the seven vetting checks into questions you can ask any practice, listed here or not, and sets out what the Code of Ethics rules out as red flags. Every practice listed here has already passed those checks, so you can compare what matters to you: who it serves, how it works, its price tier, and its verified reviews.

Every listing shows a price tier from $ to $$$$: the overall average of what a project or engagement with that practice costs, in US dollars, on one scale for every listing. The Buyer's Guide gives the range for each tier. A tier is an average, not a quote, and the Code of Ethics requires every listed practice to state its fees and terms before an engagement.

Done For You means the practice executes the work on your behalf. Done With You means you do the work under its direction. Some practices offer a mixture of both, and every listing states which it offers.

Yes. You contact any listed practice yourself, through the website and contact details on its listing. PBA does not charge a practice for a lead, an introduction, or a client, and it will never become a gatekeeper between you and the practices listed.

Do your own due diligence: verify credentials, read the agreement you are asked to sign, and get the fees, deliverables, and terms in writing. Figures on a listing, such as team size and clients served, are supplied by the practice and confirmed as far as reasonably possible, so ask the practice to substantiate any figure you rely on.

Find Your Match is six questions that turn into a ranked shortlist: what you do, the help you need, your budget, whether location matters, the kind of practice, and how involved you want to be. Every vetted practice is scored against your answers, and the five strongest fits come back with a percentage and the reasons each one fits or falls short.

Each answer adds points, and the score is the points a practice earns divided by the points available for your answers, rounded to a whole percentage. A question you skip, or answer with no preference, is left out of the total. Every weight is published on the Find Your Match page, and every match shows the points it earned.

No. The scoring runs in your browser, and your answers are never sent to us or to any practice.

No. Paid plans, featured placement, the founder listing, the PBA Power Ranking, and any relationship with MCG are never used, and MCG, which runs this directory, is scored by the same rules as every practice. When two practices tie, the one with verified client reviews comes first, then alphabetical order; reviews never change the fit percentage.

They are Code of Ethics, AI Disclosure, Primary Focus: Personal Branding, Specialization, Verifiable Website, Verifiable Social Media Footprint, and Legitimate Legal Filing. Every listing meets all seven for as long as it is listed, and a listing is reviewed again if its details change materially, if a report is filed about it, or periodically. The vetting standard explains each one.

In four steps: the application, agreement to the Code of Ethics, a call with a PBA representative, and a decision. Mashman Consulting Group reviews every applicant, vetting is free, and no criterion is waived for anyone, including the founder's own agency. If the call goes well and every detail checks out, the listing is created, as the listing guidelines describe.

Personal branding must account for at least 70 percent of a practice's work: at least seven of every ten clients served are personal brand engagements. A listed practice can take on other work too; what it cannot do is list here on the strength of unrelated work.

A published position on AI is one of the vetting criteria. Using AI is not disqualifying; concealing it is, and so is using it to manufacture a perception a client has not earned. Each disclosure appears on the listing in the practice's own words, and it can be revised but not removed while the practice is listed. PBA publishes its own AI disclosure too.

Seven commitments every listed practice signs, the founder included: organic growth comes first; AI is disclosed, not concealed; earned press, honestly earned; truth in results; identity before image; transparent pricing; and the client owns the brand. Breaking it, or disagreeing with any part of it, ends a listing. Read the Code of Ethics in full.

Anyone can file one through the report form, free, with no account, and anonymously if you prefer. Mashman Consulting Group reviews every report and contacts the practice, which may respond. A confirmed violation means permanent removal, and any paid subscription ends with the listing. You are told the outcome unless you filed anonymously.

Any personal branding practice: an agency, a consultancy, or an independent consultant. There is no invitation, no waiting list, and no fee, and every application is measured against the same seven criteria. Apply to list, and expect a response within five business days.

The Vetted Listing is free forever, with no application fee, no lead fees, and no commissions. It includes the full vetting review, a dedicated listing page, direct client contact, your AI disclosure published in full, and eligibility for the PBA Power Ranking on equal terms with every paid tier.

Professional and Featured Partner launch in 2027. They are documented on Plans and Pricing so practices can plan ahead, but they cannot be bought yet because billing is not connected. They add placement and presentation, such as a place above standard listings and verified client testimonials on the listing.

Vetting approval, star ratings, review counts, a position in the PBA Power Ranking, immunity from reports, or the founder position. Featured Partner placement is always labeled as paid and capped at 4 practices site-wide, and testimonials come only from verified clients, never from the practice itself.

Find your listing on Update Your Listing and send a change request from the contact email on file; there is no account to create. A person reviews every request, usually within two business days. To leave, say so in the request or email contact@personalbrandingagencies.com (opens in a new tab) from the address on file, and we will remove the listing.

Every review needs a working contact email, and we confirm with the reviewer that they were a client; if we cannot reach them, the review is not published. A person reads every review, and for a critical review the practice may respond first but cannot veto it. The reviewer is told the outcome either way, as How Reviews Are Verified explains.

Your rating, your review, your name as a first name and last initial, and any role you add. Your email address is never published, never given to the practice, and never used for marketing.

No. A practice cannot pay for, request, or approve an edit or a removal, and reviews written by a practice or on its behalf are rejected. A review comes down only for a reason on file: it fails verification, it was not written by a client, it breaks the review terms, or the reviewer asks.

Only to correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation, within limits the software enforces: at most 12 characters or 10 percent of the review, whichever is more, measured against the reviewer's original words. The rating is never edited, the original is kept, and an edited review is labeled Edited for spelling and grammar.

The PBA Power Ranking is a leaderboard of listed practices built from verified client reviews and nothing else. Rating counts for more than volume, a rating is weighted toward the directory-wide average until enough reviews support it, and a practice with too few reviews is unranked rather than ranked last. It recalculates on its own, with no editorial override.

Paid plans; featured or front-of-directory placement; the founder listing; how long a practice has been listed; its size, revenue, or client count; anything it writes about itself; and any relationship with Mashman Consulting Group. The exact weighting and minimum are deliberately not published, because they are the only part a practice could target rather than earn, as How Ranking Works explains.

Named practitioners at listed practices, and no one else. There is no open submissions path and no paid byline at any plan tier, and the PBA team reads every piece before it runs. Read the Editorial.

Contributor positions are open to listed practices only. Say so in your listing's change request and describe what you would cover, or email editorial@personalbrandingagencies.com (opens in a new tab) with a finished piece or a question. A piece that does not run never affects your listing, its rating, or its rank.

The author and the practice keep ownership; publishing here is permission to run it, not a transfer of rights. If the practice leaves the directory, its pieces come down with its listing, under the editorial standards.

While the directory grows, a small number of sample listings show how listings, paid placements, ratings, and the PBA Power Ranking appear. They describe no real agency, and their ratings, review counts, figures, and ranking positions are illustrative, not verified reviews. They cannot be contacted, reviewed, or hired, are kept out of search indexing and the sitemap, and are removed or replaced as real practices pass vetting.

Totals on the site, such as the number of listed agencies, include sample listings while any are live. The press kit's directory data and the Directory Report count vetted practices only, and Find Your Match leaves sample listings out unless you choose to include them.

What you send through a form, such as an agency application, a review, a report, or a press inquiry, and the standard server logs our host records for security and to keep the site running. It is used for the reason you sent it, such as a vetting review or confirming that a reviewer was a client. The privacy policy sets out the rest.

No. We do not sell personal information, share it with advertisers, or run third-party advertising, and leads are never sold or shared, with MCG or anyone else.

The site sets no advertising or analytics cookies; the only cookie keeps an administrator signed in. Usage is counted as anonymous daily totals that identify no one, and a random visitor code kept in your browser shows which of Mashman Consulting Group's own sites introduced you to another. That code is not linked to your name, email, or IP address and is never shared with third parties.

Only in your own browser, along with the practices you viewed recently. Neither is sent to us, and clearing your browser's site data clears them. Saving a practice is counted anonymously, but the list itself stays with you.

Applications are kept for the life of the listing plus two years, reviews while published plus two years, and reports for three years. To get a copy of your information, correct it, or delete it, email legal@personalbrandingagencies.com (opens in a new tab); we respond within thirty days.

Write to press@personalbrandingagencies.com (opens in a new tab) or send a press inquiry from the press kit. Responses usually go out within two business days, and sooner if you say you are on deadline.

Fast facts, boilerplate, how vetting works, directory data, logos and screens, approved lines, and recent releases, with the logos and screens in one ZIP download. Every figure in the press kit is drawn from the same records the directory is built from and can be substantiated on request.

The world's first dedicated personal branding directory. That distinction line is exact and should not be rephrased. For more, use the boilerplate in the press kit as written, and ask before printing any line that is not there.

Releases are issued through the Mashman Consulting Group newsroom and published on News and Releases. Mashman Consulting Group represents all MASHMAN entities.

The whole directory as a printable report: the vetting standard, how a practice gets listed, the Code of Ethics, and a snapshot of every vetted practice. It is redrawn whenever the directory changes, an official edition is published on the first of every month, and it is free to read and download. Cite it as the Personal Branding Agencies directory report, with its edition month, and link to the Directory Report page so readers reach the latest edition.

It is a subsidiary property of Mashman Consulting Group LLC (MCG). MCG operates the directory, wrote its vetting standard and its Code of Ethics, and reviews applications and reports. Our Relationship With MCG sets it out in full.

Yes. MCG is a personal branding consultancy and holds the founder listing: permanently first and labeled Founder · Not for sale. It was vetted against the same seven criteria as every other listing and signed the same Code of Ethics.

No. The first position is the only placement it holds, and no one can buy it. It has no effect on the PBA Power Ranking, MCG is scored in Find Your Match by exactly the same rules as every practice, and anyone can report it like any other listing.

No. PBA may use technology MCG built where it makes the directory better, but that never means a listing is judged by MCG's methods, and it never steers a visitor toward MCG's own services. Links to MCG's own resources, such as the MCG Wiki, are labeled as MCG's.

That is the aim. We are working to make Personal Branding Agencies an independent platform that benefits the whole industry, not only MCG, and every practice that is listed, reviewed, and ranked on equal terms moves it further in that direction. The roadmap sets out the plan year by year.